It is a challenging time of year. If you celebrate Christmas, you have to deal with all the confusing rituals and interesting family dynamics and, most probably, retail goods of dubious utility. If you don't celebrate Christmas, you have to wrestle with your resentments while pretending that everything is fine, thank you, fine. In either event, you're going to need a nice Xmas Quiz to tide you over, and lo, we have one.

6. Time for Caribbean fun! What is the southernmost Caribbean island? What is the easternmost? If I were to travel due south from Manzanillo, Cuba, what island would I encounter first? Is Puerto Rico bigger or smaller than Cuba? Is Martinique north or south of Antigua? What is the strait between Haiti and the Dominican Republic called?

8. Many of you already know that the California poppy is the state flower and the California valley quail is the state bird. But what is the state insect? The state reptile? The state marine fish? The state rock? The state mollusk?

9. Which of these statements is false: (a) A record 21 co-inventors received the original patent on the computer. (b) Abraham Lincoln was awarded a patent for ship underwater bellows that would inflate in shallow water. (c) Actress Hedy Lamarr patented a complex communications system to guide torpedoes. (d) Comedian Red Buttons received a patent for his Harmonigun, combining a harmonica and a squirt gun. (e) General Electric owns a record 50,000-plus patents; founder Thomas Edison holds a record 1,093. (f) Orville Wright patented a flying doll that somersaulted through the air.

10. Which point on Earth is closest to outer space? Hint: It's not the top of Mount Everest.

11. Only two vice presidents served under two presidents, but neither completed his second term in office. Who were they? Under whom did they serve? And why did each not serve out his term?

14. Who wrote: "Oh, what a tangled web we weave, when first we practice to deceive."

15. Who were the members of the band Fleetwood Mac in its most successful period, 1975-1987? How did the group get its name? Bonus question: How did the Wu-Tang Clan get its name?

16. Where are Becher's Brook, Canal Turn, Melling Road and the Chair? For extra credit, who is Numbersixvalverde?

17. What is the shortest international border in the world?

18. Who wrote, "And so we beat on, boats against the current, borne ceaselessly into the past." What work is it from? What happens to the title character?

19. I stole this from Skeptics.com.au, and I think it very fine indeed: Mike Batt and John Cage have each composed a musical piece consisting entirely of silence. Which one is better?

20. Speaking of Australia: The United States and Australia are sort of the same shape. To what American city do each of these Australian cities most closely map, geographically speaking: Sydney, Perth, Broome, Adelaide?